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Page 471
however, Ela raised her hands defensively to her ears.
"What does she mean she is moving men around the country?" William roared. "Does she go with them to war?"
"I must suppose she does," Ela agreed faintly, cowering back in the chair. That aspect of the matter had not occurred to her before.
"That fool! How can Ian indulge her so much that he allows her to bring on his downfall and her own?"
"But William, if Ian is dead or imprisoned, how can he stop her? Be reasonable, do! Oh dear! Alinor is a very strong woman, stronger than you think, but this is out of all reason, I agree."
"That idiot woman!" Salisbury exclaimed, striding up and down. "I do not know whether to ride first to John and discover whether his spies in Wales know aught of thiswhich is what needs doingor to ride to Roselynde and see if I can prevent this feminine folly."
"It is too late to ride to Roselynde. Alinor is already gone from there."
"Gone? Where? To Wales already?"
"I do not know. Her man said only that she had left the keep. Perhaps she meant to tell me where she was going, but you see that her letter is ill-writ. She must have been in haste and greatly disordered."
"Of a truth, she must be greatly disordered to conceive of such an idiocy," William growled. "Does she think men grown old in war will obey her? Does she intend to instruct them how to build catapults? How to storm a keep? Does she intend to lead them onto the walls?"
"Oh, not that, William."
"Are you sure?"
"Now William, you are allowing yourself to go too far. I do not really approve of what Alinor is doing, but there is some reason to it. Her chief vassal is John of Mersea, and he is little more than a score of years old. She does not really have a trustworthy man to control

 
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